That Sinking Feeling Or How Stashes Grow

Originally published Thursday, January 10, 2008

It was my father, Carl, who instilled in me my love of football, although my mother is also a big fan (she learned from her father, too). When we’d be watching a game, and one of the teams would be behind with time running low and no hope of winning, the television would always show a sideline shot of the coach or a player or a fan on the losing team. The person looked so dejected and my dad would turn to me and say, with a twinkle in his eye, “I think he’s getting that sinking feeling.”

Whenever we reach the realization that something isn’t going as planned and the outcome isn’t what we had hoped, we get that sinking feeling. I got that sinking feeling last just last night. I was working on my long-neglected Dale of Norway Gjende, and it suddenly dawned on me that, although I had enough white yarn to finish the sleeve I was working on, the one on the left in the photo, there’s no way I had enough to finish the rest of sleeve #2, let along the neckband.

So the search began. Did I have another ball or partial ball of Knit Picks Telemark in Drift stashed somewhere? I have 2.5 extra balls of the dark red, and 1 extra of the dark navy, but there is no extra white to be found.

I search through the box with the rest of the extra Telemark. No white. I search through my knitting bag. No white. I search through the crate that holds most of my current UFOs (UnFinished Objects to you knitting know-nothings). No white. There is no white Telemark to be found anywhere in this house.

What choice do I have? There’s no other way but to order another ball from Knit Picks. Oh, I can hear you non-knitters now. Well, you say, that’s a pretty sensible way to resolve the situation. You need another ball of yarn, so buy it already and shut up.

Ha, says I. What do you know about it? It may seem simple–just buy another ball. But you knitters know what I’m talking about, don’t you, I say with a knowing wink.

One ball of Telemark cost $1.99, but shipping is $2.99, so I cannot simply order one ball. That’s crazy. I’d be paying more for the shipping than for the yarn. Who in their right mind would do that?

Moreover, Knit Picks offers free shipping on orders of $50 or more. FREE shipping! Who can resist FREE shipping? So I say to myself, Why not go ahead and order yarn for the boy’s Aran sweater, and throw in those Harmony cable needles you have on your wish list, and to round out the order to qualify for FREE shipping, some of those cute tube gizmos for storing dpns (double-pointed needles for you non-knitters) would really be great, especially for transporting the Harmony sock needles I bought a couple months ago. Like I needed more sock needles. ☺

So, in order to save $2.99 shipping on a ball of yarn that costs $1.99, I ended up spending $52 and change. How’s that for economy?

Oh, these Internet businesses. They sure know how to entice us into buying more than we intend to buy. Just offer us FREE shipping on orders of $X or more. I don’t always fall for it. Really. Not always. I recently ordered a computer book from Amazon(dot)com that qualified for SuperSaver shipping if only I spent just a little more. But I did a few calculations and the shipping was really much less than I had to spend to get the FREE shipping. And the shipping for the book didn’t cost MORE than the book itself.

But $2.99 to ship a $1.99 ball of yarn? Not on your life. Besides, I was going to by the Wool of the Andes for the boy’s Aran sweater sometime, right? No time like the present, right? No stash too large, right?

And now I’m getting that sinking feeling that I’ll never get my credit card paid off. 😉